Does hearing the phone ring make you panic? Does the thought of making a call give you cold sweats?
听到电话铃声响起的时候，你有没有感到很恐慌？一想到要给别人打电话，你是不是就会冒出一身冷汗？
We're rarely separated from our mobile phones these days, but many people still suffer from a true, deep fear of making a phone call.
如今，我们和手机形影不离，但是很多人依然饱受真实而又严重的电话恐惧的折磨。
Recognised as an offshoot of social anxiety disorder, telephobia afflicts people across countries and generations.
打电话恐惧症可以算是社交恐惧症的一个分支，在很多国家，各个年龄段的人都深受其困扰。
Those who suffer from telephobia might be comfortable delivering a talk in a room full of strangers or might send dozens of text messages a day, but get shivers when they need to talk on the phone.
对患有打电话恐惧症的人而言，他们可以在一间满是陌生人的屋子里侃侃而谈，也可以在一天中发出数十条短信，但一需要给别人打电话时，他们就会浑身颤栗。

"For a lot of people, getting on the phone is a particularly complex interaction," says Jill Isenstadt, vice president of coaching for Joyable, which offers online therapy."
吉尔·艾森施塔特是Joyable机构培训部副总裁，这家公司提供针对打电话焦虑症的网上在线疗法。他表示：“对很多人而言，打电话是一种极为复杂的人际互动方式。”
"You have to think of things on the fly and you have to respond to what someone is saying to you."
“在打电话的过程中，你的大脑必须飞速地运转，这样才能很好地回应对方的话”。
Technologies that enable communication without directly speaking to someone, have made it easier to mask the problem of telephobia.
现代技术的发展使非面对面交流成为可能，但也掩盖了打电话焦虑症问题的存在。
As a result, the problem has become harder to spot, and there's no hard data on the prevalence of telephobia.
因此，人们越来越难以察觉这一问题，有关打电话焦虑症涉及人群的硬数据也无从查找。
Ultimately, the fear of talking on the phone can have disastrous results for productivity or job mobility.
最终，通电话的恐惧会对生产力和就业流动性造成毁灭性的后果。
Telephobia has been around well before the advent of smartphones. George Dudley and Shannon Goodson wrote The Psychology of Sales Call Reluctance in 1986.
在手机出现以前，电话恐惧症就已经很普遍了。1986年，乔治·达德利和香农·古德森就撰写过一本名为《排斥电话销售心理学》的书籍。
In his 1929 autobiography, British poet and writer Robert Graves writes about developing a deep fear of using the telephone after suffering an injury while serving in the First World War.
1929年，英国诗人兼作家罗伯特·格雷弗斯在自己的自传中提到，在一战中服役时的受伤经历使他对使用手机产生了深深的恐惧。
In some cultures, people are apprehensive about talking on the phone, says Michael Landers, global director of Culture Crossing, a consultancy which advises groups and individuals working in a global context.
Culture Crossing是一家咨询公司，为在全球范围内工作的团队和个人提供咨询，该公司全球总监麦克尔·兰德斯表示，对某些文化背景的人而言，给别人打电话是一件让人忧虑的事情。
"In Japan there is a hesitancy regarding talking to someone you don't know — they don't want to offend someone or lose face," says Landers.
兰德斯说：“在日本，人们不愿同不认识的人说话，因为他们不想冒犯到别人或者因此掉了面子。”
"In Indonesia, where the average person sends about a hundred text messages every day, he says people are just less comfortable making calls."
“在印度尼西亚，每个人平均每天会发送上百条短信，而这仅仅是因为打电话不太舒服。”
Most therapists use an approach rooted in cognitive behavioral therapy to help patients overcome their fear of the phone. Isenstadt asks patients to identify the anxious thoughts they have about talking on the phone and walks them through worse case scenarios.
大多数理疗师会用认知行为疗法来帮助那些患有打电话恐惧症的人，比如艾森施塔特就会要求接受治疗者先正视他们在打电话时出现的焦虑情绪，然后再帮助他们应对打电话时会出现的更难以应付的情况。